1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming device which, while conveying a sheet-shaped recording material, scan-exposes the recording material by a laser beam or the like, and subjects the recording material to developing processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, in image forming devices such as heat developing recording devices, silver salt photographic exposing/developing devices and the like, a sheet-shaped recording material is exposed by a laser such that a latent image is formed thereon. The recording material is then subjected to dry or wet developing processing such that an image is formed thereon (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) Nos. 11-133572, 11-167170, 11-202419, 11-228000, and 2000-122257).
Such devices employ a system in which the recording material is exposed while being conveyed. However, there are cases in which, due to the recording material being conveyed in a skewed manner or irregular conveying of the recording material or the like, exposure cannot be carried out uniformly, and a good image cannot be obtained. Further, there is the concern that, because the exposure section and the developing section are disposed adjacent to each other, image defects will arise at the time of exposure because of the effects of the heat. There is also the need to avoid the problem of double exposure inherent in laser exposure.
An object of the present invention is to overcome the above-described problems.
In order to achieve the above object, in accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming device comprising: an exposure section having a laser irradiating device which irradiates and scans, on a sheet-shaped recording material, laser light which has been modulated on the basis of image data, and an exposing/conveying device for conveying the recording material, and scanning by the laser irradiating device is main scanning and conveying by the exposing/conveying device is subscanning, and the exposure section records an image by the main scanning and the subscanning; a heat developing section having an insertion portion, and conveying and heat developing the recording material on which an image has been formed, and wherein a path length between a scanning position and the insertion portion is shorter than a conveying direction length of the recording material, and wherein given that a conveying speed in the exposure section is V1 and a conveying speed in the heat developing section is V2, a relationship 0.7 less than V2/V1xe2x89xa61.0 is satisfied.